When The Battle Is Won
by The Teddy Bear
Summary: The battle with Thanos is won, but at a cost. Vision is down, Thor and Scott are dead. Rhodey is dying. Steve walks through the carnage left behind, he sees scenes of love, tragic loss and mourning from the most unexpected people- people Steve thought incapable of this kind of grief. Then, hope; Tony believes he has a way to bring Vision back, but at what cost? One-shot.


**A/N**

 **So My friend and I had this theory and I posted it to Tumblr, but I really wanted to write it as well, so here it is; my first fic written on my new laptop!**

 **Also, this fic has clintasha, just assume that Clint isn't married and Nat never fell for Bruce...**

 **So, anyway... enjoy!**

The battle was won. Steve struggled over to where the Vision's lifeless body lay, the dazzling amber stone that usually lay in his forehead was gone, still latched onto the, now dead, mad titan's stupid gauntlet of power.

His shield was shattered to pieces. As he continued over to Vision, he saw shards of red, white and blue everywhere from when Thanos had smashed it up early on in the battle.

Thor was dead. Scott was dead. Rhodey wasn't dead yet, but it was close. They all knew it.

Wanda pushed past Steve with the only remaining ounces of strength she had left. She was already crying. First Pietro, now this.

Watching her kneel by Vision and bow her head, Steve allowed himself to shed a tear for his fallen comrades in arms. Friends, family. Hadn't he lost enough? Why did he have to lose more?

"Steve?" wheezed a voice from behind him. Steve had been annoyed by that voice often enough to know who it was.

"Tony." He responded, turning to look at the man. He was in bad shape; blood was still pouring from an open wound on his forehead, and he had lost his right glove and left knee plates.

"The mind gem… it could bring him back." Tony explained, hoping against hope he could save just one life today.

Steve nodded, not bothering to communicate further with him. He wiped away the tear that was sitting uncomfortably on his cheek and looked around at his surroundings for the first time since the battle; they were on some sort of desolate rock floating through space. The rock was black as obsidian, and strewn with corpses of Chitauri, Asgardian warriors, and other alien species that had aided either them or Thanos in the battle.

The unconscious body of Clint lay nearby, with Natasha trying to awaken him. In the end, she decided on her electrical bracelets, and shocked him back to reality. He looked disorientated for a moment, before focusing on Natasha, and passionately kissing her, pulling her towards him with incredible force.

Steve smiled slightly ' _about time_ ' he thought as he turned away and looked in another direction. What he saw shocked him to a point of utter disbelief; Loki was sobbing over the corpse of Thor, desperately and feverishly muttering spells under his breath to try and bring him back.

Another crystal tear escaped Steve's eye as he turned away from the scene.

Suddenly he remembered- _Bucky._

He had fallen sometime during the middle of the battle- the turning point when the power stone had become dislodged from the infinity gantlet.

Steve dropped the largest fragment of his shield and raced towards the place where he saw Bucky fall. He couldn't lose Bucky again. He wouldn't let him get away from him again. Never.

There was the tell-tale glare of silver from his arm, but the rest of his body was hidden under the body of a dead Chitauri soldier. Steve hauled the soldier off his best friend, praying to God, Jesus and every angel he knew of that he lived.

"About time, punk." He heard, and he breathed the greatest sigh of relief he ever had to see Bucky alive, and hardly injured it seemed.

"Decided to take a nap, did we?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and helping the supersoldier up.

"I wish… got a blow to the head from the gauntlet, only just woke up and found the big alien freak on me when you showed up." Bucky explained as Steve led him towards Vision, where he could see Tony heading as well with the gauntlet.

"Sure, jerk… if that's what you wanna say to make you seem tougher." Steve joked, smirking and pushing his platinum hair out his eyes.

Bucky pushed him slightly, sticking out his tounge, as if the childish gesture would cause actual offense to his friend. Steve decided to play along, mocking offense and then returning the gesture.

Tony was kneeling next to the still lifeless body of Vision, fiddling with the gauntlet until the mind gem was eventually released from its place on the knuckles.

"I wonder if, if we put a different stone in his head, he would do different things, like if we put the time stone in, would he become the T.A.R.D.I.S.?" Tony thought aloud as Steve and Bucky approached.

"Really? You want a time-travelling robot now? Aren't about forty flying suits and your own skyscraper enough?" asked Steve, folding his arms and raising both eyebrows.

"It's just a theory!" Tony defended, examining the stone in his gloved hand, and then checking the place where it was supposed to sit in Vision's head.

After a few minutes, which involved Wanda getting increasingly agitated with Tony, and Steve contacting the Guardians so they could transport them home, and arranging a place to stay with Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D. for the rest of the Avengers to recuperate when they got back, Tony declared that he knew what to do, and prepared to place the stone back inside Vision's head.

Suddenly Vision whirred back into life without the stone being inserted. They all jumped back instantly, watching as Vision's eyes turned slowly red.

Steve exhaled slowly, his eyes widening. "No." he whispered.

Vision stood, and only uttered six words…

"There are no strings on me."


End file.
